


Queen of the Ashes

by WulfLuva93



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 03:10:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18864523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WulfLuva93/pseuds/WulfLuva93
Summary: If he hadn’t been caught between Drogon’s flames and the hundreds of Lannister soldiers fighting for their lives, Jon could have believed he was in a dream, seeing Dany stand before the thing she’d wanted most—him behind her, waiting for her to take her rightful place.





	Queen of the Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fanfiction story for the immediate aftermath of s8ep5. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

_She’s not her father._ That was the promise he’d spoken to Sansa. At the time, he’d believed with everything he had that she wasn’t. Daenerys was more than a foreign invader. She would lead the people of Westeros into a new, peaceful life. After watching the sky rain fire down upon them, Jon believed nothing.

“Please. You’re the only one who can fix this. She won’t listen to me.” Tyrion was begging him, but Jon could barely make out the dwarf’s pleas from the raging beats of his heart. The blood between his ears was pounding, causing an ache that wouldn’t disappear no matter how many times he’d tried to calm himself. He’d only felt like this once before, during those minutes when his body couldn’t understand why it was moving again. Why it wasn’t at rest after a knife to the heart.

Jon had thought Hardhome was the worst thing to ever happen to innocent people. Thousands of wildlings slaughtered before his eyes. But this? This was unconscionable.

“Jon. Jon!” Davos was shaking his shoulder. When Jon finally looked up from the where he’d been staring at the ash-covered ground, Davos spoke in the way only Davos could, “Lad, we need you.”

 

**

 

Daenerys stood in front of the Iron Throne. If he hadn’t been caught between Drogon’s flames and the hundreds of Lannister soldiers fighting for their lives, Jon could have believed he was in a dream, seeing Dany stand before the thing she’d wanted most—him behind her, waiting for her to take her rightful place. Despite the destruction and rubble surrounding the castle, this part of the Red Keep was still mostly intact. He didn’t know if that was Daenerys’s intention when she’d let her dragon loose. That all she wanted was to protect that cursed chair, everyone else be damned.

After Dany had given her victory speech, where the remaining Dothraki and Unsullied had cheered her triumph, she’d made her way towards the throne room. At that moment, Jon couldn’t see a difference between the woman who’d toasted their victory over the dead with the conqueror who stood before the decimation of her city. And Jon had never felt more terrified. She didn’t appear monstrous standing in front of the crowd. She was just Dany. A confident, powerful leader. His Dany.

The Night King had been death personified, which Jon thought would be the most fearsome creature he’d ever behold in his lives—both his first life and his current one. But as he stepped over the rubble to confront his queen, Jon’s hands trembled harder than they ever had when the wildlings were massacred and the dead had surrounded Winterfell.

Watching Dany stand and stare at the throne her— _their_ , a voice inside his head reminded him—ancestors built caused bile to rise in his stomach. If this is the price Targaryens must pay for greatness, Jon wanted no part of it.

“Dany?” Jon could barely speak her name. It came out as a hoarse whisper. His throat was dry from breathing in smoke, though Jon didn’t think that was the only reason he had trouble addressing her.

Daenerys didn’t turn away from the object of her attention, though he knew she heard him from the way her shoulders stiffened.

“Dany, please look at me.” When Jon had discussed how he would confront their queen with Tyrion and Davos, they’d suggested caution. To be her lover, not her general, and to keep her calm, bring her back down from her… Jon didn’t want to think the word _madness_ , yet there was nothing else to call it.

Once Daenerys finally turned to face him, Jon could see how much looking away from the throne cost her. The thing she’d obsessed about since she was a girl was now within her grasp. She only had to take the last few remaining steps to reach her life’s goal.

Her face had been washed clean of the ash and soot, and her dress—made of the black leather and red cloth of a true Targaryen—was spotless. She’d washed herself clean of the havoc she’d wreaked on the city, while Jon’s own clothes were covered in blood and death.

Jon could tell there would be no placating her. The woman he had loved was the same woman standing before him, just made harder and with her inner dragon finally let loose from its chains.

“If you’ve come to ask why, you’ll get no answer.” Her words were clear and decisive, with no hint of remorse.

Her evasion angered him. The remaining people of King’s Landing deserved to know why she’d destroyed their homes and killed their loved ones.

His response was more forceful than he’d intended, “So this is what your legacy is built on? The ashes of innocents? You burnt your own soldiers! Women and children! You-”

“I know what I did. And if you think I regret it, you are mistaken. I told you they would fear me, and I meant it. The Seven Kingdoms now know what happens when they defy Daenerys Targaryen.”

Jon couldn’t hold eye contact with her. It was worse than when he’d first seen her on Dragonstone. When he was too awed by her and too unsure of himself to look her in the eye. But he couldn’t be complicit in this kind of rule. Not as he’d been today.

 “If this is how you’re going to reign, I will have no part in it.” Jon turned to leave, dreading telling Tyrion that he’d accomplished nothing. She was truly lost.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Her words were harsh. A horsewhip lashed at his back.

“Home.” Jon breathed the word out with longing. Just the idea of walking through Winterfell’s gates caused his horror at the day’s events to ease for a small moment.

“No.”

At that, Jon stopped and turned to face her once again.

“No?”

“No. You won’t be going anywhere.” His body went cold at the implied threat. “Sansa is still the Lady of Winterfell. She’s also a traitor.”

Jon’s chilled insides turned to fire. “You will not harm her, Dany. She made a stupid mistake, but she’s just a girl. If anyone deserves punishment, it’s me. I’m the one who told her, and you said it yourself, I shouldn’t have.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. But we can’t change the past.” Dany’s eyes seemed to go far away for a second until they returned their focus on him. “If we look back, we are lost…. In any case, murder is not what I had in mind. At least, not yet….” The reassurance she wouldn’t harm Sansa anytime soon did little to soothe his apprehension.

“Then what is it you want?” Maybe Jon could get something out of her after all.

“To keep your sister and the Northern forces in check.”

“And how do you propose to do that after you’ve destroyed an entire city?”

Dany’s smile was soft and almost…resigned. “Marriage.”

“What?”

“Together we will wed and rule. I, Daenerys Stormborn, will break the wheel that has been crushing the people of this realm, and you, Aegon Targaryen, will stand at my side.

“I’ve told you, Dany, no matter how much I loved you, I won’t do this.”

“You will.” If Dany’s words came out any sharper, Jon would expect gashes across his skin.

“Sansa cannot move against me if her brother stands at my side.”

Jon’s heart sunk. “You intend to keep me as a hostage?”

“I _intend_ to keep you. You may not love me anymore, Jon Snow, but I still love you.” Daenerys reached her hand forward to stroke his cheek, but Jon flinched before she could make contact. Daenerys only moved closer.

“You are mine. My consort. You will publicly reject your claim to the Iron Throne, so the North remains free from any forceful retribution, and when our child comes of age, you will help mold him into a future king.”

Jon’s only reaction to her words was his mouth falling open. The silence lingered until Jon finally managed to gather his wits.

“You said you couldn’t have children,” he whispered.

Dany laughed humorlessly.

“And you said the witch wasn’t a reliable source of information. You were right. And now, you’ve given me the impossible. You, a walking dead man. Jon Snow, Aegon Targaryen, Warden of the North, and my White Wolf.” This time, her smile was soft and reminded him too much of the woman who’d held his hand on the boat from Eastwatch.

Jon barely heard her listing off his titles, he was too focused on her revelation. He didn’t want to father a bastard. He never wanted children. But if he ever were to have them, he’d always thought it’d be a happier occasion. Instead, Jon’s only emotion was dismay.

Daenerys seemed to want an end to the conversation, for she turned back to that damned throne—the throne that had killed both his grandfathers, his uncle, his mother, his birth father, two of his brothers, two other siblings he’d never know, and his true father, Ned Stark. Would that chair be the death of him as well? Would he one day find himself at the end of Drogon’s flames for a crime he didn’t commit?

He didn’t have much time to dwell on the questions before Dany started making her way up the dais, ready to take her seat on the blood she’d spilled.

“Don’t worry,” Dany spoke to the Iron Throne, not even bothering to end their conversation face-to-face. “I grew to love my first husband. I’m sure you’ll adjust to our marriage quite well.”

And with that, she lowered herself onto that godsforsaken chair. Her throne. To rule as queen of the ashes.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is obviously a line from show, but this video definitely inspired it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJIj9L_NU2Q&list=LLRLT60Q2i-oy3VA2HMdarWA&index=6&t=0s
> 
> So I actually am really enjoying Dark Dany. I hated episode 3 & 4, but for some reason, I'm liking this one. Though the mad-queen plotline (along with every other plotline) is obviously super rushed. I'm crossing my fingers D&D can pull of a decent episode on Sunday. I'm thinking I shouldn't get my hopes up, though.
> 
> Also, this is my first time posting fanfic. Be gentle with me.
> 
> Also also, if anyone would like to take this as inspiration and make it better/add to it (not blatantly copying, though), I'd LOVE to read it! The reason I wrote this is just so I could have some Dark Dany in my life that's not super smutty.


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